824 Memoir of Sylhet^ Kachar, ^ adjacent Districts. [No. 104. 



new plants offering themselves, as we advance eastward, that this, with 

 the similarity of climate to that of the southern parts of China, led to 

 the inquiries originally commenced by the late Mr. Scott for the tea 

 plant, which if it has not yet been discovered in a wild state so far to 

 the westward, would probably succeed on some of the soils in the 

 alluvial formations of Kachar or Tippera. Several cognate plants have 

 been found, and genuine tea plants were raised in my garden from 

 seeds in 1835. 



China root i(Rhubarb?) and lignum aloes are mentioned as the pro- 

 duce of Sylhet in the " Ayin Akhbari," but I never heard that either 

 engaged the attention of the trader. 



Land Tenures and Revenue. — The tenures in Sylhet being derived 

 mostly from the Mahomedan government, are similar to those of Bengal 

 generally ; but the condition of the land, which is subdivided to an 

 extent elsewhere unknown, excites the attention of every intelligent 

 inquirer. The permanent settlement included Sylhet, and about that 

 time there were I think 27,000 proprietors enrolled in the Collec- 

 tor's books, since when, in consequence of subdivisions which have 

 been facilitated rather than checked by the law, the number has 

 more than trebled, and a revenue of three and a half lacs is now 

 collected from a hundred thousand proprietors. The only species of 

 holding which seems unknown in Sylhet, is that of the village commu- 

 nity, or Bhya chara, and this is the more remarkable, as something very 

 like it still exists in Kachar and Assam, and there seems so much reason 

 to believe that it attained over the whole of Sylhet, as a part of the 

 ancient Kamrup ; indeed I think it will be found that it is to the break- 

 ing up of these communities, by admitting the individual holders to 

 engagements with the State direct, that we must attribute the origin of 

 the extraordinary number of petty holdings in this district. Notwith- 

 standing the existence of some tenures of a different character in 

 Assam, the most ancient form in that country, apparently, by which 

 land was held, was under a grant from the prince addressed to a body 

 of proprietors, who by it were erected into a corporation, called a Raj, 

 and who possessed the land on terms by which they were bound each 

 for the other, and for the revenue of the whole estate. In Kachar this 

 is unquestionable, and indeed up to a recent period no other form of 

 tenure was known or acknowledged. The pecuniary wants of the late 



